SWIFT, the global financial network that banks use to transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers on Monday that it was aware of “a number of recent cyber incidents” where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system.

The disclosure came as law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere investigated the February cyber theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. SWIFT has acknowledged that the scheme involved altering SWIFT software on Bangladesh Bank’s computers to hide evidence of fraudulent transfers.

Yesterday the Federal Reserve released a 19-page letter that it and the FDIC had issued to Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, on April 12 as a result of its failure to present a credible plan for winding itself down if the bank failed. The letter carried frightening passages and large blocks of redacted material in critical areas, instilling in any careful reader a sense of panic about the U.S. financial system.

A rational observer of Wall Street’s serial hubris might have expected some key segments of this letter to make it into the business press. A mere eight years ago the United States experienced a complete meltdown of its financial system, leading to the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. President Obama and regulators have been assuring us over these intervening eight years that things are under control as a result of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. But according to the letter the Fed and FDIC issued on April 12 to JPMorgan Chase, the country’s largest bank with over $2 trillion in assets and $51 trillion in notional amounts of derivatives, things are decidedly not under control. Continue reading →

The revelations of the so-called Panama Papers that are roiling the world’s political and financial elites this week include important facts about Team Clinton. This unprecedented trove of documents purloined from a shady Panama law firm that arranged tax havens, and perhaps money laundering, for the globe’s super-rich includes juicy insights into how Russia’s elite hides its ill-gotten wealth. Continue reading →

(NaturalNews) Few could have envisioned it even just a few years ago, but it’s happening now, and on an ever-widening scale. More big U.S. banks are shunning cash, because the banking system has become so dependent on other “assets” that large cash deposits actually pose a threat to their financial health, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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And the largest U.S. bank in terms of assets — JP Morgan Chase & Co. — has dramatically cut “unwanted” deposits to the tune of $150 billion this year alone, in part by charging customers fees. Continue reading →

UK Prime Minister David Cameron reflects the serious problem we have with politicians. Politicians have ZERO respect for our human rights for they only think about how they are going to raid our wealth to pay for their families and retirements at our expense. Cameron actually asked, “In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication we cannot read? My answer to that question is: ‘No, we must not’.”Continue reading →

(NaturalNews) The Greek financial crisis continues to escalate, as the government recently put in place a controversial revenue-generating policy aimed at improving its economic position at the expense of its citizens.

The government will introduce a “surcharge” — really, just a tax on cash — for all cash point withdrawals, such as at banks or at ATMs, in what is proving to be a last-ditch, desperate attempt to prevent citizens from taking their money out of beleaguered financial institutions altogether.

JPMorgan Chase recently sent a letter to some of its large depositors telling them it didn’t want their stinking money anymore. Well, not in those words. The bank coined a euphemism: Beginning on May 1, it said, it will charge certain customers a “balance sheet utilization fee” of 1 percent a year on deposits in excess of the money they need for their operations. That amounts to a negative interest rate on deposits. The targeted customers—mostly other financial institutions—are already snatching their money out of the bank. Which is exactly what Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon wants. The goal is to shed $100 billion in deposits, and he’s about 20 percent of the way there so far. Continue reading →

The FBI is warning U.S. companies that cyber terrorists from the Middle East and North Africa are planning to conduct cyber attacks against Israeli and Jewish interests next week.

The Bureau stated in a security notice to U.S. industry on Sunday that, as of early March, “several extremist hacking groups indicated they would participate in a forthcoming operation, #OpIsrael, which will target Israeli and Jewish Web sites.” Continue reading →

Nations of the world are sidestepping around the U.S. dominated world economy and are replacing it with their own. The move from SWIFT is yet but one piece. An example of another would be the alternative global internet brought to you by BRICS.

Ekaterina Blinova — Almost 91 domestic credit institutions have been incorporated into the new Russian financial system, the analogous of SWIFT, an international banking network.

The new service, will allow Russian banks to communicate seamlessly through the Central Bank of Russia. It should be noted that Russia’s Central Bank initiated the development of the country’s own messaging system in response to repeated threats voiced by Moscow’s Western partners to disconnect Russia from SWIFT. Continue reading →

There was a startling revelation from Senator Mark Warner. Basically, he admitted that there was more to the hacking of 100-million+ Americans credit cards than meets the eye. Here are some comments from CNBC:

Transcript: ”In all this, we got a hint yesterday from senator Mark Warner from Virginia who suggested that U.S. Intelligence knows a lot more about this hack attack problem than it can say publicly. Take a listen to Mark Warner yesterday –‘Quite honestly, I think we’re going to see and I know from my role in the intel community this is a crime that happens daily to financial institutions, retailers at a level that frankly, if most Americans realized, I think would find rather confounding.’ So, Warner suggesting there that U.S. Intelligence knows more about this than American consumers do.”

Now, pair this statement regarding Target with comments from General Keith Alexander on 60 Minutes as reported in Forbes: Continue reading →

If it can happen, it eventually will happen. While America continues to make huge gains in vulnerability, its enemies are making huge gains in technology that enables them to hit harder and more effectively. Manchurian chips from China are placed throughout military hardware as well as government and civilian hardware — and the USA is just barely catching on to this, after decades of being infiltrated.

Retired Vice Adm. Mike McConnell, who headed both the National Security Agency (NSA) and served as director of national intelligence, said in a speech that one example of a devastating cyber attack would be the crippling of the U.S. economy through cyber attacks on banks and financial institutions.

“We have a national problem and it is significant. The next big issue will be a cyber 9/11,” McConnell said during a luncheon speech to a meeting of the American Bar Association standing committee on law and national security.

“I’ve been sounding the alarm, and I’ve been doing this now for 20 years,” he said. “We are going to have a cyber event that is catastrophic.” Continue reading →

SWIFT, the Brussels based transaction provider, announced it has been instructed to cut services to Iranian financial institutions that are subject to European sanctions, in order to comply with the EU Council directive.

­The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, is crucial to Iran’s oil and other trade.

Belgium-based SWIFT, which provides banks with a system for moving funds around the world, bowed to international pressure on Friday and said it was ready to block Iranian banks from using its network to transfer money further isolating Iran’s economy on the global stage.

Expelling Iranian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication would shut down Tehran’s main avenue to doing business with the rest of the world – an outcome the West believes is crucial to curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

SWIFT, which has never cut off a country before, has been closely following efforts in the United States and the European Union to develop new sanctions targeting Iran that would directly affect EU-based financial institutions.

The United States and EU have already moved to sanction Iran’s central bank.